Lights of the South seeks county's approval for ice rink

Monday

The operators of one of the Augusta area’s most popular holiday attractions want to add an ice-skating rink and expand their operating hours two weeks past Christmas.

The Columbia County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote Tuesday evening on whether to grant a zoning change that would allow Lights of the South to construct the rink on land now occupied by the attraction’s Christmas tree maze.

Organizers of Lights of the South and Augusta on Ice – both Christmas-themed family-fun venues – announced in May that the two separate enterprises would pair their events.

The skating-centered event, originally known as Evans on Ice and held at Evans Towne Center Park, changed its name last year to Augusta on Ice and opened on Augusta Common after a contractual dispute with Columbia County over using the public park for a for-profit venture.

Augusta on Ice co-founder Chris Boerner said in May that pairing the events will increase each one's value to patrons, and will ease space and utility constraints she faced operating the event at Augusta Common.

Lights of the South sits on more than 117 acres in Columbia County. It fronts Louisville Road, just south of where the road crosses Interstate 20.

Lights of the South features light displays; tractor-pulled hay rides; fires for roasting marshmallows and s’mores; and visits and photos with Santa Claus. It typically operated from to 6 to 10 p.m. each day from mid-November through about Dec. 29.

Under the zoning request filed by Matthew Sterner, the owner of Cedar Rock Holdings, the new hours of operation would be weekdays from 4 to 10 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 10 p.m., beginning Nov. 15 and ending Jan. 6.

According to the submitted site plan, the area for the proposed rink is about 120 feet by 200 feet. The rink itself is about 55 feet by 110 feet, with the remaining area including a tent covering the rink and the equipment to keep the ice cold.

The proposed rink would use a chiller system and be identical or very similar to the rink set up last year on Augusta Common.

For safety purposes, an emergency access road for the rink also is part of the proposal.

While the additions to the holiday attraction are expected to increase attendance – and traffic – to the site, county planning officials said in their conditional approval of the proposal that the expanded hours of the attraction would spread out the impact of that increase over a longer amount of time.

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